Archive for June, 2015

Possible traffic relief for Weems Road

Wed, Jun 10, 2015

Two days ago, I saw in Tallahassee Democrat, our local newspaper, a public notice from Florida Department of Transportation FDOT (http://www.dot.state.fl.us/) about resurfacing of the portion of the Capital Circle Southeast closer to where we live.

Currently the FDOT resurfacing the main artery to the city, Mahan Drive (US 90) from Capital Circle to Magnolia Drive. However, the public notice mentioned below would resurface area close tothe current resurfacing but would also add right turn lane on Capital Circle SE on the north bound lanes. The latter part is very important.

This will probably have direct impact for our neighborhood where it has become increasingly difficult to get in or out of our own neighborhood. This is true during the morning and especially during evening rush hour as people driving north bound in Capital Circle SE take a short cut at Easterwood Drive and proceed to Weems Road to get Eastern Tallahassee where many of them live. This makes Weems Road, which is undivided single lane road, congested. To get in and out of our neighborhood occasionally it takes about a minute not because so many people live in our neighborhood but so many others who don’t live are driving on the only road we have access to the public road ways.

Travel to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

June 1-7, 2015

I arrived at Jacksonville International airport around 4 PM. Parked my car in the Economy Parking Lot 1 and took the airport shuttle to get to the JAX airport. Then my Delta flight to Minneapolis-StPaul left Jacksonville airport around 6:30 PM EDT and scheduled to arrive at MSP at 8:40 PM CDT. The flight was about 3 hours long and it was okay flight. Due to summer there was sunlight as we landed in Minneapolis-StPaul. I had to run to new terminal to catch my next flight to Saskatoon, SK. My next flight was from completely in a different part of the terminal so I ran from F terminal to C terminal and there was only about an hour time and I had to have something to eat. I grabbed some sandwich at the C terminal and soon boarded flight to YXE. The flight was 2 hours long and arrived at Saskatoon, SK around 11 PM. I had to go through both immigration and customs. Since it was a small airport there were only two agents and by the time everything was over, it was almost 11:40 PM MDT. Unfortunately neither of my cell phones worked (T-Mobile prepaid and Mobal International). So I tried to log into Gmail. That got rejected because I was logging in from Saskatoon far away from home. So not wanting wait I took a taxi and went to Ogle Hall at the University of Saskatchewan campus. The ride was quick and costed ~C$22.

The next morning my old prepaid quad band T-Mobile cell phone (poor the clam shell flip phone) worked. That saved my trip. The texting on it was bad but worked. Once I arrived at Canadian Light Source, I was able to log into Gmail by typing in the secure phone number.

I arrived at Saskatoon International airport around 3:15 AM using a taxi cab and it cost ~C$25. Since it was so early there was no one at the Delta counter. Then around 4 AM people came and I checked my luggage and got the boarding pass. The Starbucks opened around 4:00 AM too and got coffee and waited at the gate.

We boarded the plane on time around 5:50 AM but never took off for another hour or so as the pilot needed to get some clearance from the ground and main office due to some problem with a light. Finally we arrived at Minneapolis-St Paul almost one hour late. The Delta people requested that those who had connecting flight to leave early. At MSP, I had to go through both immigration and customs. Fortunately, the Automated Passport Control (APS) and the airport helped me finish the process quickly. Then I had to wait for the luggage to arrive and cleared through customs and rechecked the bag. Fortunately, again the my gate was literally next to the plane from Canada. I then arrived at ATL around 1 PM. My final flight to Jacksonville was at 3 PM and that arrived at JAX by 4 PM. I was surprised to see my luggage make it all the way from Minneapolis especially when it took a long time before everyone had collected their luggage.